


come back to me, baby (we can work this out)

by slowklancing (notanannoyingfangirl)



Series: bandaids don't fix bullet holes [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A Conversation I Strongly Feel Needs to Happen, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), First Kiss, Gay Keith (Voltron), Getting Together, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Miscommunication, Season Seven Fix It, Some angst, lance is important, post season seven, talking about feelings, with a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 17:30:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15667911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notanannoyingfangirl/pseuds/slowklancing
Summary: “What do you want from me, Lance?” Keith asked, reaching up to run a hand through his hair.“I want my friend back,” Lance said quietly. “What happened to you while you were gone?”// what happened after season seven ended





	come back to me, baby (we can work this out)

**Author's Note:**

> So after finishing Voltron’s Season Seven, I decided that there had to be an explanation for why Keith seemed so out-of-character, especially in the way that he interacted with Lance. After reading a few threads on twitter: here (https://twitter.com/starrydaggers/status/1028715189791649792), here (https://twitter.com/starrydaggers/status/1028139638530105344), and here (https://twitter.com/starrydaggers/status/1028367197150765057), I found that I really believe that the reason for Keith’s shift in attitude towards Lance has to do with him seeing Lance and Allura together when he hailed the Castle of Lions. That spiraled into this little fic which is going to spiral into a little series dedicated to fixing all the ways in which Season Seven fucked up. Because there were a lot. And there’s nothing I can do about what happens in canon, but… 
> 
> This is what I can do. 
> 
> As always, I’m not claiming to own the voltron characters (although I would take better care of them), recognizable titles are song lyrics and belong to their respective creators. The title of this fic is from the song The One by Dua Lipa.
> 
> This fic is not beta’d and was written super late at night, so my apologies for any errors. 
> 
> Love you all, thank you so much for reading, 
> 
> slowklancing

“Okay, what the  _f_ _uck_ , Keith?” Lance snapped as he stormed into Keith’s room that the Garrison had given him. 

“What’s your problem?” Keith asked, arching an eyebrow. He dropped out of the fighting stance that he had been practicing, closing his bayard and resting it on the table next to his bed. 

“What’s  _my_ problem?” Lance asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s  _your_  problem?” 

“I don’t have a problem,” Keith said, mirroring Lance’s defensive stance. “You’re the one who stormed in here. I was just practicing with my bayard.”

“That’s all you’ve been doing since you woke up… since we all woke up,” Lance grumbled. “Don’t you-”

Keith felt his blood begin to boil in the way that only Lance could cause. “We need to focus right now. The Altean inside of that mech still hasn’t woken up, we have no idea who she is or why she attacked. We need to be prepared for another strike.”

“And you think I don’t know that?” Lance asked, obviously offended. “You think the  _team_ doesn’t know that? But you keeping yourself locked up inside of here isn’t helping anyone.” 

“What do you want from me, Lance?” Keith asked, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. 

Hurt flashed in Lance’s blue eyes, and for a second, Keith felt bad about his rough tone. 

“I want my friend back,” Lance said quietly. “What happened to you while you were gone?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Keith said, thinking back to his time on the Space Whale. 

“Well that’s too bad,” Lance said. “Because obviously you need to. You’ve been a complete jerk since you came back. Did I… did I do something wrong?”

“Not everything is about you, Lance,” Keith sighed, even though this kind of  _was_ about Lance. 

Actually, scratch that.

This was  _totally_ about Lance. 

“Fuck that,” Lance spat. “You’re fine with everyone else on the team, you and Hunk are closer than ever. But you keep pushing me away. I’m supposed to be your right hand man, Keith.” 

“It’s just not that simple,” Keith said. 

“Then explain it to me!” Lance said, throwing his hands up in the air. 

“I LOVE YOU!” Keith screamed, “is that what you want to hear?”

“Keith-” Lance said, much quieter, his eyes wide in shock.

“And it hurts,” Keith continued, “because I know that you’re in love with Allura. I saw the way you two were holding each other when I hailed the Castle of Lions. So, sorry, if I’ve been  _pushing you away_. Are you happy now? Is this what you wanted to hear?”

“You’re in love with me?” Lance asked, blinking. 

“I just said that, are you really going to make me repeat myself?” Keith asked, flushing in embarrassment now that the anger was slowly fading. 

“You’re in love with me?” Lance asked again, his voice higher.

“I’m not saying it again,” Keith warned. “And I know that you don’t feel the same way, so can you just leave me alone now?”

“I thought you liked Axca,” Lance said, still sounding stunned.

Now it was Keith’s turn to blink. “Um, no. I… think she likes me? But, I, uh… don’t like girls… so…”

Lance rocked back on his heels. “You’re in love with me?” He repeated to himself, quietly. 

“Is that really so hard for you to believe?” Keith asked, unable to help himself.

“But you left us. The team. And me. You left me,” Lance said, locking eyes with Keith. “We were supposed to have each others’ backs, and you just left.” 

“I did that for you,” Keith said. “You were so worried about losing your place on Voltron, and it made more sense for you to keep the Red Lion and for Shiro to take Black back. And you came to me telling me that you thought you should step down… Lance, the team needed you. They still need you.”

“So you stepped down so that I wouldn’t have to?” Lance asked.

Keith nodded. 

“Fuck, now I feel like a jerk for storming in here like this,” Lance said, chuckling softly, although there wasn’t any real humor in it. 

“No, you were right. I’ve been an ass,” Keith allowed. “I’ve allowed my personal feelings to interfere with the team. I’m… working on it.”

“I’m sorry that I said you shouldn’t have come back,” Lance admitted. “I didn’t mean it.”

“We were all going space mad, Lance,” Keith said, “you don’t have to apologize for-”

“Yes, I do,” Lance cut him off. “Because it came out harsh, but I meant it. At the time, I meant it. I was hurt and confused and upset, and it was… easier when you were gone. But, Keith, I don’t think that you should have stayed away from the team. You’re our leader, and we need you.”

“I… I’m sorry that I left in the way that I did,” Keith finally settled on. He wasn’t sure what else to say. Wasn’t sure if there was supposed to be an unspoken  _I n_ _eed you_ after what Lance had already said.

“You know, you’re making it really hard to be mad at you right now,” Lance added, slumping against the wall behind him.

“I don’t want you to be mad at me,” Keith said.

He knew perfectly well what he had been doing with Lance: pushing the other boy away before Lance had the chance to reject him. It was what he always did. If he rejected someone first, he wouldn’t have to go through the pain of them rejecting him.

“Well you were doing a pretty good job at it,” Lance said with a huff. 

“Well, I’m just not good with… feelings and emotions. I’m not like you, I can’t wear everything on my sleeve,” Keith admitted, hoping that Lance realized he wasn’t trying to insult him, but compliment him.

Keith admired that about Lance. For all his over-the-top flirting, Lance knew how he felt and he knew how to express it. And when people didn’t return his affection, he knew how to bounce back and continue on with his life.

Keith wasn’t sure how to do that. Now that his… feelings for Lance were hanging out there in the open, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. Did he pretend like everything was normal and fine? Would Lance give him more space than normal? That would be understandable, right? Lance wouldn’t want to toss his fledgling relationship with Allura in Keith’s face, he was too considerate for that. 

“I don’t wear everything on my sleeve,” Lance said quietly. “Like, I bet you didn’t know that I had a crush on you back at the Garrison.” 

Wait.

What?

“Wait, what?” Keith said aloud, feeling his heart slamming into his chest. He tried not to dwell on the past tense that Lance was speaking in, but it was impossible. It kept his hopes from reaching too high. 

Lance nodded. “How else do you think I recognized that stupid mullet enough to follow you into space? But I didn’t really know you back then.”

“Oh, right,” Keith said softly. Lance didn’t really know him back then, and once Lance got to know him, he realized that he didn’t actually like him. That was flattering.

“And then I made up the whole stupid rivalry thing,” Lance continued, “because I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with the fact that you were stupidly attractive, even with the mullet, and I spent years trying to follow in your footsteps at the Garrison, and you didn’t even remember me!?!” 

“I did remember you,” Keith added. “I mean, I couldn’t immediately place you because you got a lot taller, okay? But, uh, yeah. I remembered you.” 

“Oh,” Lance said. “You never told me that.”

Keith shrugged. “You never asked.” 

A series of questions rested at the tip of Keith’s tongue. Questions like  _how long did you like me for_? And  _when did you stop liking me_? And  _did you stop liking me_? Questions he wasn’t sure that he was ready to hear the answers to.

_Are you and Allura together_?

“And then,” Lance continued, regaining his momentum, “we took down Sendak and you looked at me with that… with that… look, and you were holding my hand and we were a good team. A really good team. And that scared me even more. So I pretended like I didn’t remember it.”

“I knew you remembered the bonding moment!” Keith said, feeling unexpectedly satisfied that Lance  _did_ actually remember the moment. It was a pretty big moment for them.

~~It was the exact moment that Keith felt his heart slam in his chest and he realized that he was fucked.~~

“And once Shiro left, I guess I just thought that we really connected. That you  _needed_ me. No one had ever needed me before,” Lance admitted. “And that felt good. Nice. But you left, and I thought ‘huh, maybe Keith didn’t need me after all’.” 

“But I did need you,” Keith countered. “After Shiro… left… I was a mess. You were the only one who could get through to me. And I only left so that you wouldn’t have to. I had the option of working with the Blades, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t know that was why you left,” Lance sniffed, and… oh god was he crying? 

Keith instinctively took a step forward, wanting to offer some sort of comfort, but unsure what Lance would except.

The other boy’s face was splotchy, and sure enough there were tears welling in his eyes. “And when you came back, you different. Meaner. But not to everybody, just me. I was still your right hand man and you still listened to me out on the battlefield. What was I supposed to think of that?” 

Keith tore his eyes away from Lance’s, locking his gaze on the ceiling. “I was gone for two years. I… know it wasn’t as long for the rest of you, but for me… it felt like I was gone for forever. And when I was coming back, when I hailed the Castle of Lions…”

“The first thing you saw was me and Allura,” Lance finished for him. 

“Yeah.”

“It wasn’t like that, you know,” Lance said, and Keith felt his world tip on its axis.

His gaze shot back down towards Lance. “Then what was it?”

Lance shrugged. “Lotor has just betrayed us, and Allura was upset. And I already knew that she would never like me the way I liked her, I had accepted that. I was just telling her that it was okay that she made a mistake, that she just had to try and make it right.” 

“Sounds like good advice,” Keith said, trying to read the expression on Lance’s face. He couldn’t. 

“Yeah, well, I’ve had a lot of practice making mistakes.”

“Lance, none of us would be here if it wasn’t for you. And everyone makes mistakes. Look at me! I’ve done everything wrong,” Keith sighed. 

“Letting your feelings get the best of you doesn’t mean that you’re doing everything wrong, although it would have been helpful if I knew what was going through that stupid mullet of yours,” Lance said, reaching up to wipe at his eyes. 

“So you’re not mad at me?” Keith asked slowly.

Lance stared at him like he had two heads. “Why would I be mad at you?”

“Because I was an ass to you instead of just talking to you,” Keith said slowly. 

“Keith, you just told me you were in  _love_ with me. I’m pretty sure it’s  _impossible_ for me to be mad at you right now.” 

“If I would have known that you would take it this well, I probably would have told you awhile ago,” Keith admitted. A large part of him had expected Lance to react badly if he ever found out. Which he wasn’t ever supposed to. But, well, this wasn’t as bad as Keith had expected.

Not as good as his wildest daydreams. In those, Lance would grab him by the front of his armor and pull him into a fierce kiss. Usually in the pouring rain, after a battle. Because Keith was into the cheesy shit, sue him.

But he had accepted the fact that Lance wouldn’t return his feelings a long time ago. If it wasn’t Allura, then Lance would find some pretty alien girl or some girl from Earth to fall in love with. 

It was never going to be Keith.

Even if he had briefly thought… at the game show…

But Lance didn’t feel the same, and now Lance would let him down gently. Things would be uncomfortable for awhile. But they would get better.

“I wish you would have,” Lance said, “because we could have done this a lot sooner.”

Lance pushed off the wall, closing the last of the space between them. His fingers reached out and wrapped gently around Keith’s elbows. 

“What are you-” Keith started, but the words died in his throat when he saw just how close Lance’s eyes were.

Blue. 

They were so blue.

Like an infinite sky.

“Close your eyes,” Lance whispered.

Keith couldn’t have ignored the request if he wanted to. He let his eyelids flutter shut, trying to ignore the churning in his stomach.

Surely Lance wasn’t about to…

The first warm brush of Lance’s lips against his cut the rest of Keith’s thought off. All he could focus on was the slight pressure of Lance’s smooth lips sliding against his. 

Oh.  _Oh_.

After a stunned second, Keith felt Lance start to pull away. 

“Was that okay?” Lance whispered into the non-existent space between them. 

Keith responded by bringing his hands up, resting the palms of his hands on Lance’s checks, brushing his tears away. He blinked his eyes open, not surprised to find that Lance was already looking at him. 

“You still like me?” Keith asked, hating the way his voice cracked.

“Well, I think it’s a little stronger than that, don’t you? I  _liked_ you back when we were at the Garrison together. But now that I really  _know_  you, I think it’s pretty fair to say that I love you, too, Samurai.” 

And Lance’s blue eyes were so wide and earnest, that Keith really couldn’t be blamed for slipping his hands around to the back of Lance’s neck and pulling him in for another kiss.

This time, Keith was prepared for their lips to meet, focused on following Lance’s lead as their lips danced across one another. 

Lance let go of his grip on Keith’s elbows, lowering his hands to Keith’s hips, and Keith walked forward, pushing Lance backwards until his back collided with the wall. 

“Say it again,” Lance whispered against Keith’s lips.

“I love you. I’m in love with you.” 

Lance let out a soft chuckle, like he couldn’t believe this was happening, and Keith found himself silently agreeing with him. “I love you too,” Lance said, pressing another quick kiss to Keith’s lips. “I knew as soon as I took off after you into the desert that I would follow you anywhere.” 

“Do you want to know what I saw while I was on the Space Whale? When Krolia… when Mom and I saw snippets of our past?”

Lance blinked at him, obviously confused.

“We saw the future too,” Keith admitted. He hadn’t told the team that. 

Lance’s eyes widened. “What did you see?”

“This, us,” Keith admitted, waving one hand between them as he stepped even closer to Lance, their chests brushing. “I thought it was some kind of cosmic joke. Like, the universe was showing me everything I wanted but couldn’t have.”

“Hey,” Lance said, reaching over to grab Keith’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “You have me.” 

Keith smiled softly down at their hands. “I lied too,” he finally said.

“When?” Lance asked, but he made no move to tug away.

“At the game show. When I said I didn’t want to be stuck with you for an eternity. Being stuck with you forever actually sounds pretty ideal,” Keith admitted, looking back up at Lance. 

“Then why did you choose me?” Lance wondered aloud, blushing faintly after he said it like he hadn’t meant to actually say it.

“I knew how much you wanted to see your family, and all I wanted was for you to have the chance to see them again,” Keith said quietly. 

Tears welled up in Lance’s eyes again, “ _fuck_ , Keith. If I wasn’t already sure that I was in love with you, you would have sealed the deal right there.” 

“I’m sorry for how I treated you, it wasn’t fair,” Keith said, pressing his forehead against Lance’s. “You’re amazing, Lance. Let me make it up to you.”

Lance reached up with his free hand, tracing the line of Keith’s cheekbone. “We have all the time in the world to worry about that. You’re stuck with me for an eternity, now.”

Keith chuckled wetly, feeling traitorous tears in his eyes. “There are definitely worse fates, Sharpshooter.”

“You’re telling me, Samurai,” Lance replied, before he closed the distance between their lips once more. 

**Author's Note:**

> For more optimistic voltron and klance content, follow me on twitter @slowklancing
> 
> And if you enjoyed the fic, please consider leaving kudos or a comment. I need something to cheer me up after the new season, after all!


End file.
